User Guide

December 2023

Finding and filtering EVs: powertrain and fuel type automatic groups

Starting in Fleet Management Application version 8.0, there are automatically populated built-in groups that allow you to quickly find and filter on EVs in features, reports, and exception rules.

Found under the Asset Information group, the Powertrain and Fuel Type group automatically classifies electric vehicles (EV) based on their unique powertrain types:

1. Electric or Hybrid Plug-in: Contains all detected Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) and detected Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV)
2. Battery Electric Vehicle (under Electric or Hybrid Plug-in): Contains all detected fully electric Battery Electric Vehicle (BEVs)
3. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (under Electric or Hybrid Plug-in): Contains all detected Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV)
4. Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle: Contains all detected Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)

Changing automatic classifications

Assets can be manually added or removed from the groups if they are not properly displayed in their respective group.

1. If an asset is manually assigned to any of these groups, that asset will be tagged under the Manually Classified Powertrain group.
2. Once an asset is manually classified, the Manually Classified Powertrain group must be removed in order for the asset to get automatically classified again.
3. If the Manually Classified Powertrain group is removed to re-enable automatic classification, it is recommended that any existing powertrain or fuel type group for the asset is removed at the same time. An asset can be part of multiple groups if it is manually classified. However, in an automatic classification scenario, the asset may be only part of one built-in group, unless the asset is a Plug-in Hybrid vehicle.

Live Map Positions: EV charging status and EV charge %

For supported EVs, the live Map displays the current battery charge % and indicates whether the vehicle is charging, driving, or stopped.

EV charging status and charge % questions and answers

Views

Map and List view

The Map view allows you to see which EVs are charging, outside or inside a zone: see flashing icon.

The List view allows you to see which EVs are charging, as well as the driving charge % for each EV, updated at 1% increments. The List view also allows you to sort the vehicles by battery charge % (EV Charge Level). You can sort from highest to lowest, to help you identify which are most ready for your operations, or from lowest to highest, to help you identify which need to be prioritized for charging.

Nearest View

The Nearest View helps you find the vehicles closest to your current location, and helps you assess which vehicle has enough range for a trip based on viewing their battery charge %.

Engine measurements: using EV data diagnostics

With EV data diagnostics, Engine Measurements allows for more advanced reporting that is not supported by the reports and features outlined above.

To access Engine Measurements, select Maintenance > Diagnostics > Measurements from the main navigation menu.

For more detailed information on EV data diagnostics and their availability, visit the Electric Vehicle Data Diagnostics User Guide.

EV exception rules

Built-in exception rules

EV Low Charge

Get notified when an EV becomes at risk of not having sufficient charge to complete routes without stopping to charge, which is a high productivity loss. This rule will trigger when the electric vehicle (EV) battery charge % (State of Charge) drops below the configured value.

Important information and tips:

1. This builds on EV Low Charge, and is more specific to plug-in reminders.
2. The specified Battery charge looks at the Engine Measurement Generic state of charge.
3. Create Zones around areas where your EVs stop and charge. Then assign those Zones to one or more designated Zone Types, and specify them here.
4. Setting this rule to On via the built-in rule will enable it for all vehicles reporting values for Engine Measurement Generic state of charge, which will include PHEVs, BEVS, and sometimes HEVs. If you have PHEVs and HEVs in your database, we advise that you customize this rule, and use the Publish to groups option to only apply to a subset of the EVs in a Group .
5. Have the plug in reminder go directly to the Driver by customizing the rule and choosing to Add driver feedback. See Understanding notification types in the Product Guide for more information.

EV Exits Charging Zone with Low Charge

This rule will trigger when EVs exit a charging zone of the specified type(s) while its battery charge is below the configured value. This is useful for identifying EVs that:

1. Leave the depot/lot at the start of their day with insufficient charge to complete their routes. This works well for cases when the EVs need a minimum charge to complete their expected route distance.

1. Leave a wider geographic safe zone, such that by leaving this larger zone with a low charge, the EV no longer may have sufficient range to return to their regular charging location.

Important Information and Tips:

1. This builds on EV Low Charge, and is more specific to notify drivers that they are at risk of not having sufficient charge to complete their routes or make it back to their usual location to charge.
2. The specified Battery charge looks at the Engine Measurement Generic state of charge.
3. Create Zones around areas where your EVs stop and charge. Then assign those Zones to one or more designated Zone Types, and specify them here.
4. Setting this to On via the built-in rule will enable it for all vehicles reporting values for Engine Measurement Generic state of charge, which will include PHEVs, BEVS, and some HEVs. If you have PHEVs and HEVs in your database, we advise that you customize this rule, and use the Publish to groups option to only apply to a subset of your EVs in a Group, such as to a BEVs group. See the Publishing rules to groups in the Product Guide for more information.
5. Have the driver be alerted by customizing the rule and choosing to Add driver feedback. See Understanding notification types in the Product Guide for more information.

EV Done Charging

This rule will trigger when the EV battery is charged to the configured value. This is useful to indicate when the EV’s charging plug can be provided to another EV, or when it is important to know when the EV is ready for use.

Important information and tips:

1. The specified Battery charge looks at the Engine Measurement Generic state of charge. Change from the default 100% value should you have your EVs configured to end charging lower than 100%.

EV Stopped in Charging Zone and Not Charging

This rule will trigger when an Electric Vehicle (EV) stops (ignition off) in a zone that has known charging stations, and does not start charging within the configured amount of time. This is to allow for time after the vehicle stops for the vehicle to get plugged in and start charging.

For when EVs shouldn’t be plugged in, such as situations where there are more EVs than plugs, and the charge level remains sufficient to cover needs, it’s possible to enable this rule to be triggered only when the EV has a battery charge % (state of charge) less than the configured value.

This is useful for identifying:

1. Missed charging opportunities.
2. When an EV is expected to be charging and is not. This could occur when an EV is not plugged in, or is plugged into non-functioning charging infrastructure.

Custom exception rules: using EV data diagnostics

With EV data diagnostics, Exception Rules offer support for additional event-based notifications and reporting, outside of those built-in rules. The following are a few to get you started!

Fuel and EV Energy Usage report

The Fuel and EV Energy Usage Report displays driving energy consumption from both fuel and electric energy sources. Driving energy consumption includes both propulsion and auxiliary, such as heating and cooling. Both fuel and electric energy usage are combined in this report to handle Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), which consume both fuel and electric energy, as well as Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), which consume only electric energy.

EV specific questions answered

Report fields — EV specific meanings

Below is a simplified list of EV-relevant fields in this report:

How do we convert electric energy to the equivalent in fuel?

Both electricity and fuel are forms of energy. This report performs a conversion of electric energy to the equivalent in fuel to calculate the Total Fuel and Electric Energy Economy, and the % of Electric Energy of Total. For Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), the equivalent in gasoline fuel is converted. For PHEV, the units convert to the same fuel type that’s used by the vehicle when the fuel type is reliably available.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) have adopted the standard conversion and states that 1 US Gallon of Gasoline is equivalent to 33.7 kWh of electric energy. Additionally, the United States Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center defines 1 US Gallon of Diesel as having 113% of the energy of 1 US Gallon of Gasoline.

Using these baseline conversions, including standard volume conversions to Liters and Imperial Gallons, we can convert electric energy to the equivalent in fuel.

Electric energy economy measurement

Similar to Fuel Economy Measurement, the Electric Energy Economy Measurement allows users to display measurements in the desired units.

To change the measurement unit, follow the steps below:

Electric energy economy measurement: metric

Electric Energy Economy Measurement: US/Imperial

Report views

List

The Fuel and EV Energy Usage page displays the electric energy and fuel usage by vehicle. Similar to Fuel used, the value for Electric Energy used is displayed under the corresponding vehicle. The list view also displays Total Fuel and Electric Energy Economy for each vehicle, as described in Report Fields — EV Specific Meanings. When both fuel and EV energy are used, clicking on a row gives you the choice to either view the Fill-Ups or EV Charging Report.

Report

Includes all fields listed in Report Fields — EV Specific Meanings, except for % Electric Energy of Total.

Advanced

Includes all fields listed in Report Fields — EV Specific Meanings.

EV Charging report

The EV Charging Report is the EV equivalent of the Fill-Ups Report used for fuel. This report provides information about the electric power and energy consumed when vehicles plug in to charge.

What’s the difference between electric power and electric energy?

Power, expressed in kilowatts (kW) or watts (W), is the rate at which electric energy is transferred into the vehicle for charging. The lower the power value, the longer the vehicle takes to charge.

Energy, expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh) or watt hours (Wh), is the total volume of power transferred or used over an hour.

EV charging report questions answered

Report fields

Report views

List

The List view displays the following information:

1. Zone(s)
2. Start and end date of the charging session
3. Duration of the charging session
4. Location of the charging session
5. Battery charge % from the start and end of the trip
6. Electric Energy Economy since the last charging session
7. Electric Energy Added

The icon allows you to view the charging location, within Trips History.

Report

The Report view includes all the fields listed in Report fields, except for Current and AC Voltage.

Advanced

The Advanced view includes all fields listed in Report fields, as well as the Charging Summary by Vehicle and Charging Summary by Zone summarized data reports.

EV Battery Health report

Overview

EV Battery State of Health is a new report that calculates and displays the change in usable stored energy capacity over the lifetime of your Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), for the EV’s high voltage (HV) battery. It is available in Beta as of Fleet Management Application version 8.0.

EV HV batteries degrade over time and under different conditions. The health of the battery over time is a new unknown impacting lifecycle projections, range and residual value. Use this report to gain visibility on the health of your EV battery.

The current methodology uses historic data communicated by the vehicle to detect original usable energy capacity and current energy capacity. In the future, we will explore communicating values directly from the EV’s manufacturer / BMS (Battery Management System), which are not commonly reported in a standardized way.

EV Battery Health Report questions answered

How does it work?

Usable original capacity

Original usable capacity is the detected capacity of the battery when the EV was first manufactured. It’s used as the comparison point for health. Battery capacity is detected monthly using a 90-day rolling average, and these detected battery capacities are compared to original capacity. The current methodology uses historic data communicated by the vehicle to detect original usable energy capacity.

For accuracy and consistency, this is crowdsourced from the make, model, year, and trim of EVs across the Fleet Management Application customer base, when VIN decoding is available. These capacity values are compared with a single original capacity value for all EVs of the same make, model, year, and trim.

To accurately detect the original capacity, input data is collected over approximately the first year of an EV’s life, from a set of the same make, model, year, and trim. Original capacity values will change month to month during the first year of an EV’s life as they become more accurate. The most recent and accurate values replace previously reported original capacity values for consistency and accuracy. For more information, see Why are the original capacity values in the report changing month over month?

Usable detected capacity

A 90-day rolling average is used monthly to detect the battery’s usable capacity. The current methodology uses historic data communicated by the vehicle to detect usable energy capacity.

Regular checks on usable capacity is the key to calculating changing health, in comparison to usable original capacity, and seeing capacity changes over time. Detected battery capacities are used in the EV battery health ratio compared to usable original capacity.

EV battery health

From here, EV battery health is simply a calculation:

Report fields

1. EV Battery Health
2. Original Usable Capacity

The root cause for all missing values is missing usable original capacity values, which are currently auto-detected from EVs. The auto-detection process depends on a number of factors:

1. VIN is fully detected. Today, VINs contributed via the Fleet Management Application are not used.
2. VIN is fully decoded into a make, model, and year, when available via VIN decoding.
3. Across all EVs in the Fleet Management Application customer base of the same make, model, year, when available via VIN decoding, and trim, insufficient data is collected at the start of vehicle life to make an accurate auto-detection.

Why are the original capacity values in the report changing month over month?

To accurately detect the original capacity, input data is used from a set of the same make, model, year and trim EVs, when it is available via VIN decoding. The data is collected over approximately the first year of the vehicle’s use. Month over month during that year period, original capacity can therefore change and updated for improved accuracy.

Why do I see detected capacity values greater than original capacity values?

To provide a highly accurate determination of the original capacity of a given EV, data to determine the original capacity is collected from a sufficiently large sample of EVs sharing the same make, model, year, when available via VIN decoding, and trim. The sample is then averaged, with a 90% confidence interval available. Since original capacity is an average (mean), there will be cases, especially in the early life of an EV, whereby the detected capacity can be higher than the make, model, year, when available via VIN decoding, and trim original capacity determination. For these cases, we cap the EV battery health calculation at 100% to indicate that battery health is detected as the best it can be.